"Red Gum Roarer" Part 2 Brick Oven Photos Discuss "Red Gum Roarer" Part 2 in the Good Background Information forums; Hi, I'm up in Nth Qld and use Lychee wood. It is really dense and burns nice and hot. But ...

[david s]

Hi, I'm up in Nth Qld and use Lychee wood. It is really dense and burns nice and hot. But the best wood is free wood. No way would I want to pay money for wood! I pick up fallen gum tree branches every time I walk the dog. The council guys will otherwise remove them and put them through a gas guzzling chipper, so you do everyone a favour

[Bacterium]

Hi David - free wood....spot on....

Ok, its been a while since I updated my progress. I did the final render on my dome and then let it cure for over 3 weeks and then did a firing. Overall its been fine except for a crack in the front area (near flue) and one down the back. They are minimumal in thickness (back one is quite long). I can't see the thing falling apart with 3 layers of wire mesh contained (within the various layers) but I do wonder if I should try and seal them? They are not in an area where water can sit as such.
Any ideas?
I've fired it 4 times since the cracks appeared and they seem to have settled down.

The dome insulation has worked well and the outer surface doesn't heat up when oven is fired. During/After firing the outer temperature is whatever the ambient temperature is on the day and doesn't vary from this.

I've got some doors to build and am thinking of sealing the outer dome (render/stucco) with some sort of coating so that it keeps the mould off and keeps it looking good.

...its actually quite a nice sunny day here now....hard to get the right picture tho!

[JoeT62]

Looks fantastic! What are your plans for the doors?

[Bacterium]

thanks Joe

I'm deep in the planning stage for extensions of my house and the oven has taken a back seat - as far as finishing the doors.

however my thoughts so far:

the oven door will be something simple yet reasonably insulated - I posted this: http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f6/o...-not-2149.html (Oven door - steel or not)

Now the doors for the wood storage and ash box areas (bottom front area). I was thinking maybe doing them in steel with some sort of steel frame behind......open to suggestions though.
The idea would be to keep the critters out of the wood area AND to have the ash box behind doors where the hot coals(once removed from oven) can't hurt anyone - they are 2 seperate area seperated by a sealed brick wall.
Maybe a sheetmetal mate of mine will get me motivated with the right ideas and we could do it over a weekend